There was an article in the papers recently about cryonics. I'm sure all of us know some basics regarding this. For those who might have forgotten or didn't know, in case we have outside visitors beside the 11 of us here, it is the freezing of cells in liquid nitrogen. These frozen cells can be kept forever as long as the liquid nitrogen is not exhausted, but it must also be kept in mind that liquid nitrogen is not cheap.
Back to the article, it mentioned about a company, Alcor, which is based in USA which deals with freezing of dead bodies and heads. To freeze dead bodies is much more expensive than the head, thus, head freezing is much more preferred. Besides that, freezing the head is much more easier, apparently.
In the process, all the body fluids are removed and will be replaced with liquid nitrogen as quickly as possible to prevent any damage to the body. A usual scenario in the scientific community, there is always an opposition. Frozen cells can be still viable if it is handled properly. But frozen body might not yield the same result. Experiments have been done with animals and all were failures.
This whole idea of freezing a person reminds me of the movie Demolition Man, which I used to fondly call it Dalmation Man. I was small at that time. In that movie, the character played by Sylvester Stallone and the bad guy (Wesley Snipes) were frozen for many years and then they were 'awakened'. They were all fine with no damage at all to their bodies. But that is Hollywood after all.
In my personal opinion, I think this is clearly impossible. Once a person dies, there is no way you can bring them back to life through this kind of technology. What these people believe is that maybe in the future, there would be some sort of technology that could cure their severe diseases, which actually caused their death in the first place. Death is inevitable. Everyone should accept that.
This brings us to another issue, wanting to live forever. (There was also a movie about this, but I forgot what it was called.) Why would anyone want that? As the days go by, everyone ages. You might live forever, but at the same time you'll be aging. You cannot possibly do the same activities you did when you were younger. Of course you can inject as much chemicals as you wish into your body believing it can actually help. But to what extend can it really help? Then there's always plastic surgery. It might the aging on the outside. But what about the organs on the inside?
Wouldn't living forever be boring? *yawns*
9 comments:
I watched Tuck Everlasting recently, remembered a quote from the film;
to some people, time is not enough, to some others, they have too much time, and to few, time meant nothing.
Something like that;
To live forever? Just imagine how much time we would waste. No expectations, no deadline.
Hmm. I guess the importance of time varies for each person and for each moment. Sometimes you might feel like you have too much time in your hand e.g. when waiting for the stupid Putra bus, and sometimes it seems like you have too little time e.g. when studying for exams/ quiz during the last minute. :)
impossible?...still too early to tell. but arshana, they who want to live forever want to stay young and healthy as well laa! They don't wanna be old and weak.
But even that hasn't been achieved yet, right? Wait however long they want. They might just rot doing that.
It's nice to know that we actually have readers. :)
Well, you may have your own point of view in this matter and so do I. It's just that in my case I also see it in the religious perspective (which isn't explained in the post), which isn't widely accepted in the scientific community.
That would explain the disparities among our views.
I can't help myself but to agree with cryoguy...;P Arshana. We have to have vision and dreams. Lebih2 lagi as a biotechnologist-to-be. Don't just see the facts under ur nose. Think beyond. Think of the impossible. I think kak anil would agree with me :P (though i got B- for bioprocess!). Tapi jgn berangan kosong pulak.
Yes, Lutfi. A'.
Hmm. I guess the article, in your opinion which is quite misleading has somewhat influenced my judgement in this matter. I should have looked up further information before saying anything about it.
Futhermore, based on your arguments here, it's clear that you know more than I do. I guess I better not use my infantile knowlegde to go on arguing, which might just as well end up wrong.
I guess if cryonics really works, perhaps in the future, do you think it's ethical to do so, to keep on preserving someone's life so that they can live longer?
yepyep...a question to ponder... For example, a cancer patient or any kind of disease that has no cure to date, might want to be cryopreserved (is dis the right word for it?) until the day when the cure for that particular disease has been discovered. Would it be ethical? Or am I asking the wrong question here..
Didn't the ancestors live longer than people of this era? They didn't have much technology, but their food was supposed to be more healthy and natural. Compared to now, which is engineered (I have nothing agaisnt GM crops), rich in additives, etc. And the environment back then was probably pollutant-free.
Your insights are interesting. Where you from cryoguy? :)
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